Recording means for materials handling systems



May 16, 1933. E. w. SCHELLENTRAGER ,7

RECORDING MEANS FOR MATERIALS HANDLING SYSTEMS Filed Dec. 26, 1931 2 Sheets-Sheet l V l I?!)IIIIWIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII mz vlllnvllll y lrllllll,

INVENTOR 2 065; N 50/154 Lil/7734627? B ATTORNEYS May 16, 1933. E. w. SCHELLENTRAGER 1,909,724

RECORDING MEANS FOR MATERIALS HANDLING SYSTEMS Filed Dec. 26, 1931 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 ATTORNEYS Patented May 16, 1933 UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE EUGENE W. SCHELLENTRAGER, OF SHAKER HEIGHTS, OHIO, ASSIGNOR TO THE ATLAS BOLT & SCREW GOM'PANY, OF CLEVELAND, OHIO, A CORPORATION OF OHIO RECORDING MEANS FOR MATERIALS HANDLING SYSTEMS Application filed December 26, 1931.

materials delivered to any container of either stationary or movable type, such as a material handling or measuring bin or container or a movable skip or car.

Its objectis to provide improved, mechanism which not only weighs the material but also records its weight in characters, such as numbers, which themselves, rather than by their position on the record, indicate the weight, and which also supplements the record of each weight by a neighboring printed indication of the material or of the character of the material in the particular lot, either by directly indicating the character of material or the source, such as the bin or group of bins from which it comes. A further object is to provide a weighing and recording scale including printing mechanism for producing alongside of each other on a single record both a readable record of weight and a legend identifying the character of material or its source.

'A further object is to provide improved mechanism of this kind capable of remote control either manually or automatically, and in the latter case an automatic control associated with operation of the container for collecting the material.

, Still another object is to provide automatic control mechanism for a system of this kind adapted for use on a moving container, such as a dump car, and in which the scale mechanism and weight recording parts operate as usual, while the material defining and recording parts are automaticallycontrolled to differentiate betweenmaterials, and the recording mechanism for both weight and material is operator controlled, but nevertheless may be associated with the car operating mechanism to work in harmony therewith, neither interfering with ordinary car operationnor being interfered with thereby.

A further object is to provide improved weight recording apparatus, including a weight responsive type wheel and an adjacent material-identifying type wheel, to-

Serial No. 583,179.

gether with a single record strip overlying both type wheels, and a single hammer to simultaneously cause impression of both wheels upon the record strip.

Further objects of the invention are in part obvious and in part will appear more in detail hereinafter.

In the drawings, which represent the invention applied for use on adump car, Fig. 1 is a more or conventionalized side elevation of the dump car; Fig. 2 is an end view of the car and showing also, in, section, a bin from which the car may be loaded; Fig. 3 is an enlarged view partly in section on the line 8-3, Fig 2, showing details of the indicating and recording apparatus; Fig. 4 is an elementary wiring diagram of a selsyn transmitter-iiidicator set; Fig. 5 is a wiring diagram for the car and bin mechanism shown in Figs. 1 and 2; Fig. 6 is a detail development of portions of the printing wheels; and Fig. 7 shows another arrangement.

While the invention is capable of use on either stationary or movable weighing con- C tainers, as stated above, for purposes of illustration and in no sense of limitation it has been shown applied to a dumping railway car such as is used in conveying raw materials to the skip hoist of a blast furnace. The dump car is therefore of large size and of considerable length and in its operation the operator moves to various positions along the usual runway, 40 feet or more in length, with which the car is provided. The indicating and recording parts of the weighing mechanism, on the other hand, are most conveniently fixed at one end of the car so that remote control of the weighing and recording parts is highly desirable.

The car travels along a way between a dumping position and a plurality of loading positions where it receives loads of different materials. Obviously a. weight record of successive loads would have little value unless the record also includes identification of the nature of each load.

The car contemplated by this invention is loaded from a number of bins or groups the useoi? thereof containing the different load materials and of course the various loadin positions of the car are determined by the ocations of the bins or groups along the car way. As a further part of this invention the character of material may be identified in the record by ita source. Knowing the nature of the contents of each bin or group, an indication in, thcrecord of, the bin or grou in efiect identifies'thematerial being weig ed. Further, by causing material identification in the record to be automatically responsive to the loadin position of the car, the operator is reliev oi the duty of manipulating a material-indicating selector before causin actuation ofthe recording apparatus, aswifl further appear.

--The car of course is power driven and, that the record may be produced onl when the car is-at a loadingposition an conseqaehtly not'in' motion, I so associate the record-producing control with the car-opcrating control that-when driving power is being applied to the car the record-produci control'is ineflective. i

is result may be obtained in anysuitable manner, or by an suitable means. For convenience, but in nosense of limitation, the drawings'showthe result obtained by so f-synchronous motors, common- 1y; *lmown as eels "motors, interconnected in sail-s of wine "one is operated at any sen ing point as a nerator and serves-as the transmitter, whi e the other-operates at the receiving-point as a' motor and serves asthe indicator. According to my invention Iprovide a'pluralit of selsyn transmitters, one for each loa ing position or a group theieof containing the same or simir materials. These transmitters"all have their rotors fixed, but each rotor is indexed to a definite position indicative of the M tienlar materiat. ()ir the car 1 'provi' e a single selsyn indicator associated with the materialidentifying indicatdr of therecordi apparatus. Contactorsare then arrange to connect theselfsynfindicator with the corresponfi'ng selsyii transmitterwhen the car is at'any leading position- The indioa'tor is also so associated with the car control that the indicator" will not beres nsive toij 'yof the transmitters while e car is underpower; i

" With reference now to'the drawings, the

car includes one on more dumping hoppers 1 supported on the car frame 2 by means of a system of scale levers generally designated at 3 and connected to a 'nterl movable over a suitable dial,'by w ichj the'weight' of any load contained in the hoppers *1 "is determined and visually indicatedi The details of'the scale mechanism are immaterial vhere, where it will suflic'e to state that the pointerji isj mounted upon a spindle Qbearing in theh0using-10 which encloses some of the scale mephanism, and further extends into another housing 11 which oncloses recordin mechanism as will appear, Upon the spin 1e within this second hous- I ing is mounted a type wheel 12 hearing upon} its go cry a seriesof'ty pe figures, as in Fig. 6, rresp ondin to the range of weight,

of the loads to be andled. Adjacent the type wheel 12.is.a hammer .13 arrangedtg "be actuated thercagainst by means of an armature 14 upon energizati'on of asolenoid V coil 15. The typelyvhcel 12 of course turns or is indexed with the pointer 4 so that the weight-indicating, -number opposite the hamg mer 13 always corresponds with the weight indicated by the position of the pointer 4.] A roll "of aper record strip 16 is provided from whic the'strip is led as at 17, between the hammer 13 and the'type face of the wheel 12, and thence onto a collector roll through suitable feeding mechanism detail! of which are immaterial here. The record strip may be prefarcdto receive impression from the type c the wheel 12 when struck a thereagainst bythe'hammer '13, or for samepu'rpose itfmay include an associated.

strip of carbon paper, or an equivalent ink;-

ing ribbon or other device-may be em loyefli It is"suflicient that it be understood that" i:

upon energization of the solenoid coil the record'stri will receive the imprint o the type face o the wheel 12, which imprin 1.

i ates the same weight indicated'by pointer 4'at the instant of im ression. record strip "may be advaai step by sfiefi by any suitable feeding means so that shecessive imprints-will be spaced at intervalg 1:.

The long ea-ris equip ed with a 'IlHlWfif 5 for the operator, at't end of which- 1; located thescale'with its weight-indicati ointer 4. The car is movable along a we between a number of loading positions at each of which are provided bins G'arrangfld l to discharge into the'car. "The bins are pro vided with gates 7: actuated iii-awesome? c I manner;'su as by handles 8'by which loading of the car hoppers may be 0011* f trolledlThehandles 8' of a bin are"arranged to be accessibleto an operatoron the car runway 5 when thecar is in such posi tion that its hep r will receive the bin 7 charge; willbeobmrved that the 1 erator at thchandleSiS more or less from thewe iglt-indi cati and *record lhg apparatuszrefore 'tha cated adjacent the handlesS, a push button 18 or othcr'suitable means is veniently located upon the car as indicated Fi .1, in circuit wlth can 15, Fig. 5;

the solenoid 11f ispo wei' driven a fs'by an 1 M i m torel9 whethe' nthe mowrahe looatedflup'onf 1; the car'orelsewhere. The car drive i m; a itac-tors and associated resistance all generally designated in Fig. 5 by the reference character 20.

In the drawings the power supply for the car comes by Way ofthe controller from the line L1, L2; and if the motor 19 be on the car the usual trolleys 24, 24a, are employed.

To prevent energizing the coil 15 of the recording mechanism while the car is under power, I provide a relay switch 21 in circuit with the coil 15 and controlled by the coil 22 which in turn is in circuit with the contactor 23 of the controller 20.

Means for identifying the material of the load, and for recording the identification simultaneously with the recording of the weight of the load, are provided as follows:

Immediately adjacent the type wheel 12 is mounted a material type wheel 25 so arranged that its type face underlies the hammer 13 and the same record strip overlying the type wheel 12. The face of the wheel 25 bears a plurality of indications corresponding with the different materials which the car is to handle, or with suitable indicia of the bins from which the car is to be loaded. Fig. 6 shows the legends C for coke, L for limestone, and O 0: etc. for different kinds of ore, each having an adjacent arrow which in the indexed position of the mate rial wheel becomes the zero mark for indicating which of the number legends is the correct weight, when because of large diameter of wheel 12 a given impression reproduces two or more of the weight numbers. Fig. 7 shows another arrangement in which the material is identified by the number of the bin from which it comes. The wheel 25 is secured with the rotor of a selsyn or selfsynchronous motor 26.

This motor 26 is adapted for electrical association with a similar motor 27 as indicated in Fig. 5; from which it will be observed that these motors are similar to threephase induction motors but have shuttlewound rotors with definite poles, the windings of which are connected to a singlephase alternating current source of excitation. The arrangement, which is well known in the art, provides that one of these motors, 27, at a sending point and serving as transmitter, may be operated as a gen orator, while the other motor, 26, located at the receiving point and serving as indicator acts as a motor. When the motor excitation circuit is closed, an alternating current voltage is impressed on he rotors of both the transmitter and the indicator. If the indicator rotor is free to turn, it will assume a position similar to that of the transmitter rotor.

According to my invention I provide such a selsyn transmitter 27 to control the indicator 26 and thus the load-indicating wheel 25. This transmitter may be arranged for operator control adjacent the switch 18, whereby the operator may present the recording device to properly identify the load before the record is effected by closing of the switch 18.

But preferably I provide a plurality of such selsyn transmitters 27 27a, 27?), 270, 27 (Z, one associated with each of the bins or groups thereof from which the car is to be loaded. Also I provide that, when the car is stationary in loading position with respect to any bin, the corresponding selsyn transmitter has such an operative connection with the selsyn indicator 26 as is indicated in Fig.

4;. In addition I index and fix, at different angular positions around the center, the rotors of the transmitters 27 for the different bins or sources so as to correspond with the positions of the bin indicia upon the loadindicating wheel 25 of the recording device; so that when the indicator 26 has connection with any of the transmitters 27 an imprint made from the two type wheels 25 and 12 will include an indication corresponding with the connected selsyn transmitter 27, and hence properly indicate the source of the load and consequently the character of its material.

Fig. 4 shows the car as propelled from a direct current source, but obviously the solsyn system requires an alternating current source. Therefore, I provide the motor generator set 28 for supplying the necessary alternating current for the selsyn system. As this system requires five connections between transmitter and indicator, I use the ground and a third trolley line L3 for two of the connections, those of the rotors of the selsyn motors. I also use L1 of the direct current line for one of the three stator connections of the selsyn system. For the other two stator connections I provide lines L4 and L5. There are thus three additional trolley wires required and similarly the three additional trolleys 29, 29a and 29?), or five in all of each, as shown in Figs. 2 and 5.

The lines L4- and L5 are interrupted bctween transmitters 27, by short insulating segments, as at 30, so that the indicator 26 may have connection with but one of the transmitters at a time, but the trolleys all run on continuous surfaces without click.

That none of the transmitters 27 may have connection with the motor 26 to actuate the latter when the car is merely travelling past the corresponding bin, I provide a switch 31 in the circuit of the selsyn transmitter and associate this switch with the same relay which controls the switch 21. Thus, whenever the car is under power the selsyn circuit system will be incomplete and the indicator 26 will not be responsive to any of the transmitters. The switch 31, however,

ido

is not essential and may be omitted if desired.

What I claim is:

' '1'. In a weight recording apparatus weight indicating means, means. arranged for indicating the material weighed, means arranged for control of said material indicating means from a remote location, and means for simultaneously recording both said indications.

2. In a weight recording apparatus, weight-indicating means, means arranged for control from a remote location for indicating the material weighed, said means comprising a remote operator-controlled selsyn transmitter and a selsyn indicator associated therewith and with said weight-indicatin means, and means for simultaneously recor ing both said indications.

3. In a weightrecording apparatus, weight-indicating means, means arranged for operator control from a remote location for indicating the material weighed, and means for simultaneously recording both said indications.

4. In a weightrecording apparatus, weight-indicating means including a movable weight-indicating type member and an associated weighing scale, means for indicating the material weighed and including a movable material indicatin type member adjacent said weight indicating type memher, a selsyn indicator associated with said material indicating type member for control thereof a selsyn transmitter at a remote location and associated with said selsyn indicator for control of the latter, and means for simultaneously making impressions from both type members to record the indications of bot In a weight-recording apparatus, weightindicating means including a weight-indicating type member and an associated weighing scale, means for indicating the material weighed and including a material indicating type member adjacent said weight-indicating type member, a selsyn indicator associated with said material indicating type member for control thereof, a selsyn transmitter at a remote location and associated with said selsyn indicator for control of the latter, and means for simultaneously making impressions from both type members to record the indications of both, said rccording means being arranged for control by the operator coincident with his control of said selsyn transmitter.

6. In apparatus of the class described, a weight-indicating type member, an adjacent material indicating type member, means arranged for control of said material indicating type member from a remote location, and means for simultaneously recording the indications of both said members, comprising record-receiving sheet means overlying the type faces of both members, and impression means arranged to effect record-producing contact between said sheet means and both of said type faces.

7. A weighing dump car having weight indicating means, adjacent means for indicating the material weighed, means arranged for operator control of said material indicating means from a remote location on said car, and means for simultaneously recording both said indications.

8. A weighing dump car having weightindicating means, adjacent means for indicating the material weighed, and means arranged for operator control from a remote location on said car for simultaneously recording both said indications.

9. A power driven weighing dum car having weight-indicating means ad acent means forindicating the materiai weighed, and means arranged for operator control from a remote location on said car for simultaneously recording both said indications, said means being so associated with the driving means of said car that said l'ecording cannot be elfected when said car is being driven.

10. A weighing dump car having weightindicating means, means for indicating the material weighed, means for controlling said indicating means responsive to the osition of said car on its way, and means or simultaneously recording both said indications.

11. In combination with a dump car movable along a way between a dumping position and a plurality of loading position.

a; means for indicating the load material and including control means therefor arranged to be responsive to the loading position of said car, and means for recording said indication.

12. In combination with a dump car movproviding connection between said indicator and the corresponding transmitter dependent upon said car occupying a loading position.

14. In combination with a dump car movable along a way havin a plurality of loading positions, means $0! identifying load material by the source from which it comes,

said means comprising a selsyn indicator on said car, differently indexed selsyn transmitters one for each loading position, and means providing connection between said indicator and any corresponding transmitter dependent upon said car occupying a loading position.

15. In combination with a dump car movable along a way having a plurality of loading positions, means for identifying load material by the source from which it comes, said means comprising a selsyn indicator, differently indexed selsyn transmitters one for each loading position, means providing connection between said indicator and any corresponding transmitter dependent upon said car occupying a loading position, and means for recording the indication of said indicator.

16. In combination with a dump car movable along a way having a plurality of loading positions, means for identifying load material by the source from which it comes, said means comprising a selsyn indicator on said car, differently indexed selsyn transmitters one for each loading position, means providing connection between said indicator and any corresponding transmitter dependent upon said car occupying a loading position, and means on said car for recording the indication of said indicator.

17. In combination with a weighing dump car movable along a way having a plurality of loading positions and having load-weightindicating means, means for identifying load material by the source from which it comes, said identifying means comprising a selsyn indicator on said car, differently indexed selsyn transmitters one for each loading position, and means providing connection between said indicator and any corresponding transmitter dependent upon said car occupying a loading position, and means for simultaneously recording the indications of said weight and said selsyn indicators.

18. In combination with a dump car power driven along a way having a plurality of loading positions, means for identifying load material by the source from which it comes, said means comprising a selsyn indicator on said car, differently indexed selsyn transmitters one for each loading position, andmeans providing connection between said indicator and any corresponding transmitter dependent upon said car occupying a loading position, said connection means being so associated with the driving means of said car that said connection can not be effected when said car is being driven, and means for recording the indications of said indicator.

In testimony whereof I hereby aflix my signature.

EUGENE W. SCHELLENTRAGER. 

